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Government promotes private education funding

A collective voice of disdain has spoken out against Governmental money-saving proposals that could equate to English universities losing £200m in education funding, leaving them with little more than £132m in the Student Opportunity Fund to provide higher education services to underprivileged students and prospective pupils who hope to secure a future placement.

Many individuals fear the immediate effects of the cuts, but concerns also surround the long-term impact of lost education fund benefits. After fifteen year olds recently failed to make the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) global top twenty in English, maths and science, fears of a national and generational dumbing-down won’t be dismissed too readily.

The steadily worsening state of the English education system has inspired many parents and carers to investigate private, tax-friendly options ahead of the time they’ll have to pay their children’s education fees. Others are giving serious consideration to an overseas education, where state support and national results continually embarrass our once enviable English education system.

It’s been proven that underprivileged pupils will have a third of the overall opportunity of going to college, but those who do manage to secure a place simply won’t be able to sustain their higher education as affordability issues threaten to bring their courses to a premature end. All eyes are now on the HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) which allocates future funding.

When accounting for the recent £100m fund reduction applied to the National Scholarship Programme, it’s hardly surprising to learn that plans to save money in BIS (the Dept. of Business, Innovation and Skills) have been met with a frosty and far-reaching negativity. The desirability of an English education now stands to diminish and become renowned for its detrimental underfunding.

The reaction is far from unfounded of course and as NUS (National Union of Students) representatives have been quick to point out, Student Opportunity Funding predominantly provides financial support that effectively empowers England’s social mobility. It seems the government now intends to undo national progression by forcing English education into taking a giant step backwards.